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Syrian opposition to form government in exile
Haytham al-Maleh, a Syrian opposition figure, claims he has been tasked with forming a government in exile based in Cairo.
Two Syrian rebel fighters load an anti-aircraft machinegun in the northern town of Atareb Photo: Getty Images
3:44PM BST 31 Jul 2012
The Telegraph
"I have been tasked with leading a transitional government," Mr Maleh said, adding that he will begin consultations "with the opposition inside and outside" the country.
Mr Maleh, a conservative Muslim, said he was named by a Syrian coalition of "independents with no political affiliation".
More than 20,000 people have been killed in Syria since a revolt against President Bashar al-Assad's rule began in March 2011, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. There is no way to independently verify the figure, while the UN has stopped keeping count.
There have been repeated calls on Mr Assad to step down.
When that happens, "we don't want to find ourselves in a political or administrative vacuum," Maleh said.
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_ Gunships open fire on Syrian rebels - 31 Jul 2012
_ Syria: rebels launch new offensive in Aleppo - 31 Jul 2012
"This phase calls for co-operation from all sides," he said.
Mr Maleh, 81, is a Syrian lawyer and human rights activist who has spent several years in prison in his homeland.
His announcement comes as humanitarian conditions grow worse in the besieged city of Aleppo with activists reporting dwindling stocks of food and cooking gas and intermittent electricity supplies.
Government helicopters pounded rebel neighbourhoods across Syria's largest city and main commercial hub. Activists said the random shelling has forced many civilians to flee to other neighbourhoods or even escape the city altogether. The U.N. said late Sunday that about 200,000 had fled the city of about 3 million.
"The humanitarian situation here is very bad," Mohammed Saeed, an activist living in the city, told The Associated Press by Skype. "There is not enough food and people are trying to leave. We really need support from the outside. There is random shelling against civilians," he added. "The city has pretty much run out of cooking gas, so people are cooking on open flames or with electricity, which cuts out a lot."
He said shells were falling on the southwestern neighbourhoods of Salaheddine and Seif al-Dawla, rebel strongholds since the rebel Free Syrian Army began its assault on Aleppo 11 days ago.
The United Nations has expressed concern over the use of heavy weapons, especially in Aleppo, while the Syria's neighbours in the Arab League have issued even stronger denunciations.
Source: agencies
Chân thành cám ơn Quý Anh Chị ghé thăm "conbenho Nguyễn Hoài Trang Blog".
Xin được lắng nghe ý kiến chia sẻ của Quý Anh Chị trực tiếp tại Diễn Đàn Paltalk: 1Latdo Tapdoan Vietgian CSVN Phanquoc Bannuoc .
Kính chúc Sức Khỏe Quý Anh Chị .
conbenho
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Cộng sản Việt Nam là TỘI ÁC
Bao che, dung dưỡng TỘI ÁC là đồng lõa với TỘI ÁC
Syria: Rebels 'overrun Aleppo police stations' - live updates
• Dozens of police officers said to be killed by FSA
• Renewed clashes reported in Syria's biggest city
• Al-Qaida fighters join battle against government
• 'Eight killed' in battle at Yemen interior ministry
• Read the latest summary
Share 38
Haroon Siddique and Brian Whitaker
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 31 July 2012 08.45 BST
Jump to comments (257)
Free Syrian Army fighters north of Aleppo. The rebels now control a land corridor from Turkey to the outskirts of the city. Photograph: Turkpix/AP
17:47 BST
Here's a summary of the latest developments Syria • Fierce clashes have been reported at police stations in Aleppo, with rebels apparently overrunning some of them. The head of the Aleppo military council was quoted as saying 60 government soldiers were killed at a police station.
• Government forces have been shelling several districts of Aleppo, including the rebel stronghold of Salaheddin.
• Damascus and its suburbs, Deir el-Zour, Dera, Homs, Idlib and, Latakia, have also been shelled, according to the Local Coordination Committees activist group.
• Scores of foreign jihadists have crossed into Syria from Turkey in the past two weeks. The British government says the number of foreign fighters will increase the longer president Assad maintains his grip on power.
• The Guardian's Ghaith Abdul-Ahad has met men in Deir el-Zour fighting for al-Qaida alongside the Free Syrian Army.
• A veteran opposition figure, 80-year-old Haitham al-Maleh, has announced that he is forming a government in exile. The move has been criticised by Burhan Ghalioun, former head of the opposition Syrian National Council.
• Government forces destroyed nine four-wheel drive vehicles with mounted machine guns, killing all of their occupants, state media reported.
Bahrain
• The Islamic Human Rights Commission has called for a ban on a Bahraini Prince visiting the Olympic Games.
Yemen
• Eight people were killed in clashes between Yemeni government forces and armed tribesmen loyal to former leader Ali Abdullah Saleh who were trying to storm the interior ministry in the capital Sanaa today, Reuters reports. Updated at 17:47 BST
Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jul/31/syria-aleppo-fighting-goes-on-live
Chân thành cám ơn Quý Anh Chị ghé thăm "conbenho Nguyễn Hoài Trang Blog".
Xin được lắng nghe ý kiến chia sẻ của Quý Anh Chị trực tiếp tại Diễn Đàn Paltalk: 1Latdo Tapdoan Vietgian CSVN Phanquoc Bannuoc .
Kính chúc Sức Khỏe Quý Anh Chị .
conbenho
Tiểu Muội quantu
Nguyễn Hoài Trang
01082012
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Cộng sản Việt Nam là TỘI ÁC
Bao che, dung dưỡng TỘI ÁC là đồng lõa với TỘI ÁC
Power cut blacks out half of India
AFP Updated August 1, 2012, 1:21 am
A customer holds a candle as he gets his haircut during a power-cut in Kolkata. Photo: Reuters
NEW DELHI (AFP) - A massive power failure hit India for the second day Tuesday as three national grids collapsed, blacking out more than half the country in an unprecedented outage affecting over 600 million people.
Hundreds of miners were trapped underground in the eastern states of West Bengal and Jharkhand when the lifts failed, metro services were stopped temporarily in the capital and hundreds of trains were held up nationwide.
Federal Power Minister Sushilkumar Shinde told reporters that the monster outage, which struck around 1:00 pm (0730 GMT) in the middle of the working day, was caused by states drawing power "beyond their permissible limits".
There appeared to have been a domino effect, with the overloaded northern grid drawing too heavily on the eastern grid which in turn led the northeastern network to collapse.
An area stretching from the western border with Pakistan to the far northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh next to China was affected, with the huge cities of New Delhi, Kolkata and Lucknow suffering without supplies.
"Half the country is without power. It's a situation totally without precedent," said Vivek Pandit, an energy expert at the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry.
It took five hours to get the northeastern grid wholly back on line, while the eastern and northern networks were operating at 35 percent and 45 percent respectively by 6:00pm, Shinde said.
In New Delhi, the metro train system came to a standstill for a few hours and traffic lights went out, causing chaos for a second day after a failure on the northern grid on Monday which caused the worst outage in more than a decade.
Even as Shinde struggled to explain how such enormous power failures could occur in successive days, news broke that he had been promoted to home minister in a cabinet reshuffle.
Meanwhile, on the streets, people seethed over the lack of air conditioning, crashed computer systems and missed deliveries.
"I had been waiting for a shipment of stock to arrive since morning and now I'm told it will be delayed indefinitely," said furious Delhi businessman Anshul Aggarwal.
"The stock was coming on a goods train which is now stuck in the middle of nowhere," Aggarwal said.
About 400 trains on the national rail network were hit, a railways spokesman told AFP, with all operations stopped in Uttar Pradesh, a state with a population of about 200 million people, bigger than Brazil's.
In Jaipur, capital of the western state of Rajasthan, renowned internationally as a jewellery centre, gem cutters and polishers were forced to put down their tools.
"We have almost 200,000 workers engaged in the trade and most of them operate from their houses. They don't have power back up, so it's obviously a major problem," said Vivek Kala, a former president of Jaipur Jewellers Association.
In the east, Kolkata went without power as did the surrounding state of West Bengal as the eastern grid, which supplies five states, failed under the stress of over-demand.
"This is the worst power crisis in the region. We were supplying power to the northern grid and this power sharing has led to the collapse," West Bengal state Power Minister Manish Gupta told AFP.
More than 200 coal miners were trapped deep underground in scores of pits in West Bengal for around six hours when the power cut left them unable to operate their lifts.
Mining company officials said the workers had been guided to locations where there was good ventilation and waited until the power returned and they could be brought back to the surface.
"All the miners have been rescued. They are all safe and are returning home," Eastern Coalfields Ltd. general manager Niladri Roy told AFP.
The Press Trust of India news agency reported that 65 miners had been similarly trapped in neighbouring Jharkhand state.
Monday's outage had seen the northern grid, which supplies nine states including Delhi, collapse for six hours shortly after 2:00am.
In total, 20 out of 29 states were affected on Tuesday, according to an AFP calculation.
The growing gap between electricity demand and supply in India has been highlighted by business leaders as a major obstacle to maintaining growth in Asia's third-largest economy.
The government has set a target of $400 billion of private and public investment over the next five years, but its track record is abysmal.
India has undershot every electricity goal it has set for itself in its economic plans for the past six decades -- and in the last three plans has missed capacity addition targets by 50 percent, according to the government Planning Commission.
Chân thành cám ơn Quý Anh Chị ghé thăm "conbenho Nguyễn Hoài Trang Blog".
Xin được lắng nghe ý kiến chia sẻ của Quý Anh Chị trực tiếp tại Diễn Đàn Paltalk: 1Latdo Tapdoan Vietgian CSVN Phanquoc Bannuoc .
Kính chúc Sức Khỏe Quý Anh Chị .
conbenho
Tiểu Muội quantu
Nguyễn Hoài Trang
01082012
___________
Cộng sản Việt Nam là TỘI ÁC
Bao che, dung dưỡng TỘI ÁC là đồng lõa với TỘI ÁC
President in name only, Assad plays for time
By ceding large parts of Syria, the tyrant has effectively admitted that he cannot win
President Bashar al-Assad with leaders of the army at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Damascus Photo: Reuters
By David Blair
8:25PM BST 30 Jul 2012
277 Comments
From street protests to insurgency to national insurrection. The remorseless escalation of Syria’s conflict since it first broke out 16 months ago is the most striking feature of the challenge to President Bashar al-Assad’s rule.
Repression has bred resistance, and vice versa, to the point where the country’s biggest cities are becoming battlefields. Aleppo is dominated by the magnificent gatehouse of its Citadel, providing visual proof that possession of this ancient city has decided the fate of kings for centuries. So it is with Mr Assad today: his actions betray a grim awareness that the struggle for Aleppo is central to his regime’s survival. He has been willing to strip neighbouring provinces of troops and tanks in order to mobilise forces for this battle, even though this effectively means turning over large areas of his country to de facto rebel control.
The outlines of Mr Assad’s new survival strategy are now emerging. He will do whatever it takes to hang on to Damascus and Aleppo and, so far as possible, the main north-south highway linking the two cities. This leaves him with little choice but to concede most of rural Syria to his enemies.
In the past few weeks, instead of being president of his country, Mr Assad has effectively become the embattled mayor of Damascus and Aleppo, plus the policeman of the road that joins them. As the war has escalated, so his realistic objectives have been downgraded.
In March last year, delivering his first speech since the outbreak of the street protests, Mr Assad predicted that his regime would “magnificently succeed in passing the test” and “come out stronger”. The president’s next setpiece address came three months later – as demonstrations were beginning to turn into outright rebellion – and the rhetoric was less flowery, but he could still say that Syria’s “destiny” was to “come out of crises stronger thanks to the solidarity and cohesion of its society”.
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_ Vogue writer 'duped' by Assad - 30 Jul 2012
_ Syrian Charge D'Affaires in London resigns - 30 Jul 2012
_ Panetta: Syria strikes a 'nail in Assad's coffin' - 30 Jul 2012
This year, as insurgency has tipped into insurrection, Mr Assad’s persona has changed to that of the sombre war leader. He still predicts victory, but his words are darker, with an acknowledgement of the suffering that has been inflicted in his name. “When a surgeon goes into the operating room, cuts a wound, the wound bleeds,” he said last month. “Do we condemn the surgeon because his hands are bloodstained or do we praise him for saving a human being’s life?”
There are tormented echoes here of Lady Macbeth: “Here’s the smell of blood still / All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand.” When a president tries to rationalise his bloodstained hands, things really have reached a sorry pass. How has this happened and what does it mean for Mr Assad’s friends and enemies?
Syria’s armed forces have clearly been stretched to breaking point by this crisis. On paper, the army has 220,000 soldiers, but most of the rank-and-file are Sunnis – and their loyalty to Mr Assad, whose regime is dominated by the minority Alawite sect, is not always guaranteed. Consequently, the burden of the fighting has fallen on two dependable units: the 4th division, under the de facto command of his brother, Maher, and the Republican Guard.
Together, these formations have no more than 30,000 men – less than 14 per cent of the army’s total strength – and they have borne the lion’s share of the task of combating a national insurrection. Their soldiers have fought from Deraa in the south to Idlib in the north, and they have paid a grievous price: at least 5,000 Syrian troops are believed to have been killed by the rebels in the past 16 months. By way of comparison, America has lost 1,939 men in Afghanistan during almost 11 years of war.
Mr Assad’s foes, notably Qatar and Saudi Arabia, have directly armed those responsible for this bloodshed, while America and Britain have provided non-lethal help. In the process, the rebels have clearly become far more capable, particularly in the past few months. Western and Arab opponents of the regime will argue that they are saving lives by hastening Mr Assad’s downfall – and they could be right. But no one should be under any illusions about the suffering inflicted by this course.
Reduced to defending a handful of cities, and confident of the loyalty of only a fraction of his army, Mr Assad is no longer bidding for outright victory. A core of his security forces can still be counted on to obey orders and defeat the rebels in pitched battles, but the clock is clearly ticking. He can still buy time – perhaps measured in months – but he cannot win.
Having invested greatly in his survival, what might lead Russia to question the wisdom of trying to stave off the inevitable? The answer, paradoxically, might be success for Mr Assad in Aleppo. If he keeps this prize and hangs on to Damascus, but cedes most of the rest of Syria, he will be telling the world that total victory is no longer on the cards. His friends may then draw their own conclusions.
*** 287 Comments
Chân thành cám ơn Quý Anh Chị ghé thăm "conbenho Nguyễn Hoài Trang Blog".
Xin được lắng nghe ý kiến chia sẻ của Quý Anh Chị trực tiếp tại Diễn Đàn Paltalk: 1Latdo Tapdoan Vietgian CSVN Phanquoc Bannuoc .
Kính chúc Sức Khỏe Quý Anh Chị .
conbenho
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Nguyễn Hoài Trang
01082012
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Cộng sản Việt Nam là TỘI ÁC
Bao che, dung dưỡng TỘI ÁC là đồng lõa với TỘI ÁC
Aleppo rebels say they stand firm in "regime's grave"
1 of 25. A Free Syrian Army member stands by his anti-aircraft machine gun during their patrol in Attarib, on the outskirts of Aleppo province July 30, 2012. Credit: Reuters/Zohra Bensemra
By Erika Solomon
ALEPPO, Syria | Tue Jul 31, 2012 5:48am EDT
ALEPPO, Syria (Reuters) - The Syrian military has stepped up its campaign to drive rebels out of Aleppo, where fighters said they were holding firm, vowing to turn the country's largest city into the "regime's grave".
Opposition activists denied a government declaration that its forces had recaptured the Salaheddine district, in southwest Aleppo, straddling the most obvious route for Syrian troop reinforcements coming from the south.
A Reuters reporter heard helicopters firing heavy machineguns over the eastern part of the city on Tuesday for the first time in several days.
Hospitals and makeshift clinics in rebel-held eastern neighborhoods were filling up with casualties from a week of fighting in the city, a commercial hub drawn into the 16-month-long revolt against President Bashar al-Assad.
"Some days we get around 30, 40 people, not including the bodies," said a young medic in one clinic. "A few days ago we got 30 injured and maybe 20 corpses, but half of those bodies were ripped to pieces. We can't figure out who they are."
The opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said more than 100 people, 73 of them civilians, were killed in Syria on Monday. It said five rebel fighters died during clashes with Syrian forces in Salaheddine.
Outgunned rebel fighters, patrolling in flat-bed trucks flying green-white-and-black "independence" flags, said they were holding out in Salaheddine despite a battering by the army's heavy weapons and helicopter gunships.
A fighter jet flew overhead, a reminder of the overwhelming military advantage still enjoyed by government forces.
'BASHAR'S FORCES WILL BE BURIED'
"We always knew the regime's grave would be Aleppo," said Mohammed, a young fighter, fingering the bullets in his tattered brown ammunition vest.
"Damascus is the capital, but here we have a fourth of the country's population and the entire force of its economy. Bashar's forces will be buried here."
So far, however, the government's superiority on the ground means rebels have had little success in holding on to urban territory. The rebels made a major push into Damascus two weeks ago, but were driven out.
The Syrian government has said it has recaptured Salaheddine. Reuters journalists in Aleppo have not been able to reach the neighborhood to verify who holds it.
The army's assault on Salaheddine echoed its tactics in Damascus earlier this month when it used its overwhelming firepower to mop up rebel fighters district by district.
Assad's forces are determined not to let go of Aleppo, where defeat would be a serious strategic and psychological blow.
Military experts say the rebels are too lightly armed and poorly commanded to overcome the army, whose artillery pounds the city at will and whose gunships control the skies.
"Yesterday they were shelling the area at a rate of two shells a minute. We couldn't move at all," a man calling himself a spokesman for the "Aleppo Revolution" said on Monday. "It's not true at all that the regime's forces are in Salaheddine."
Warfare has stilled the usual commercial bustle in this city of 2.5 million. Vegetable markets are open but few people are buying. Instead, crowds of sweating men and women wait nearly three hours to buy limited amounts of heavily subsidized bread.
In a city where loyalties have been divided, with sections of the population in favor of the Assad government, some seemed wary of speaking out in the presence of the fighters, many of whom have been drafted in from surrounding areas.
Asked about his allegiances, one man waiting at a police station that had been badly damaged by shellfire said: "We are not with anyone. We are on the side of truth."
Asked whose side that was, he replied: "Only God."
Others stopped members of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) and asked them to do something about the supply of bread and petrol.
Rebel fighters remain in control of swaths of the city, moving around those areas armed with assault rifles and dressed in items of camouflage clothing in an edgy show of confidence.
They were emboldened to strike at Aleppo and central Damascus by a July 18 explosion that killed four of Assad's top security officials
BIG POWERS DIVIDED
With big powers divided, the outside world has been unable to restrain Syria's slide into civil war.
The only international military presence is a small, unarmed U.N. observer mission. A convoy carrying the head of the mission was attacked on Sunday and only the vehicles' armor prevented injuries, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Monday.
He gave no further details of the attack. U.N. officials said on condition of anonymity that the convoy of five vehicles was hit by small arms fire in Talibisa, some 17 km (10 miles) from Homs, in what they said was an opposition-held area.
Moscow has supported Assad and has shown no sign of abandoning him, blaming the West and Arab countries for stoking the revolt by backing the opposition. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov said on Twitter: "Situation is really critical in Aleppo. It is clear that biased media by all means try to do work for the opposition when the latter fails."
France said it would ask for an urgent meeting of the U.N. Security Council to try to break the diplomatic deadlock on Syria, but gave no indication that Russia and China would end their longstanding policy of blocking measures against Assad.
In London, Syria's most senior diplomat resigned because he could no longer represent a government that committed such "violent and oppressive acts" against its own people, the British Foreign Office said. Charge d'affaires Khaled al-Ayoubi joins a growing list of senior Syrian defectors.
Amid growing concern about security on its frontier, Turkey sent at least four convoys of troops, missile batteries and armored vehicles to the border with Syria.
There has been no indication that Turkish forces will cross the border, and the troop movements may just be precautionary in the face of the worsening violence in Syria.
(Additional reporting by Yara Bayoumy in Beirut; writing by Giles Elgood; editing by Peter Graff, Michael Roddy and Mohammad Zargham)
Chân thành cám ơn Quý Anh Chị ghé thăm "conbenho Nguyễn Hoài Trang Blog".
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Syria's DIY Revolt
Syrian rebels are massively outgunned by Bashar al-Assad's regime. But as Assad's army bears down on Aleppo, it may find the armed opposition is more than ready.
BY ELIOT HIGGINS | JULY 30, 2012
"We are using bullets that cost $3," lamented a Syrian rebel commander, "and they are coming with bombs that cost thousands."
That may be so, but Free Syrian Army (FSA) fighters have used those $3 bullets to bring President Bashar al-Assad's regime to the brink of collapse. Over the past week, they have seized control of several districts in Aleppo, Syria's largest city and economic hub. Now, as Assad musters his forces to retake the city, both sides are bracing for what could be a pivotal battle in the 16-month revolt.
How did Syria's rebels get so far with so little? As their strength has grown, they have used heavy machine guns, anti-aircraft cannons, rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) launchers, and improvised explosive devices (IEDs), and they have even captured tanks to inflict damage on the Syrian military. As a largely improvised guerrilla force, they have also cobbled together some strange do-it-yourself (DIY) weapons systems, designed to hurl whatever explosives are on hand back at their enemies.
These weapons reflect the FSA's need for rapid movement, and they have at times proved effective in urban combat environments. Whether they will be enough for the rebels to repel the Syrian military in the battle of Aleppo, however, remains to be seen. Here is just some of the military hardware that Syria's opposition fighters are using against Assad.
Read more: http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/07/30/syria_s_diy_revolt
Chân thành cám ơn Quý Anh Chị ghé thăm "conbenho Nguyễn Hoài Trang Blog".
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Syria: Vogue writer says she was 'duped' by Asma al-Assad
The American writer behind a famously flattering Vogue profile of Asma al-Assad has described how she was "duped" by the Syrian president's wife.
Joan Juliet Buck said she had initially been reluctant to meet the Assads Photo: Getty Images
By Nick Allen, Los Angeles
5:57PM BST 30 Jul 2012
Joan Juliet Buck's 3,200-word article, headlined "A Rose in the Desert," was published in March 2011 and described the British-born Mrs Assad as "glamorous, young and very chic – the freshest and most magnetic of first ladies".
Writing in Newsweek magazine 14 months later the author called Mrs Assad "the first lady of hell" and outlined how "the devil and his wife" had "showed off their fantasy lives for me".
Buck said she had initially been reluctant to meet the Assads and "should have said no" when Vogue called with the assignment, but she had been "curious".
She said that, at the time of the interview in Syria in December 2010, fashion magazines had regarded the country as a "forbidden kingdom, full of silks, essences, palaces, and ruins, run by a modern president and an attractive, young first lady".
The writer said Mrs Assad had seemed "as friendly as a new acquaintance at a friend's cocktail party" and had "sounded like the kind of young Englishwoman you'd hear having lunch at the next table at Harvey Nichols."
Related Articles
_ Syria: refugees tell of the horrors of the flight from Aleppo - 30 Jul 2012
_ Syrian Charge D'Affaires in London resigns - 30 Jul 2012
_ Syria's senior diplomat in London quits over 'violent and oppressive' regime - 30 Jul 2012
_ Panetta: Syria strikes a 'nail in Assad's coffin' - 30 Jul 2012
_ Syria: Aleppo attack is 'nail in Bashar al-Assad's coffin' - 30 Jul 2012
_ Syria dispatch: from law student to warrior, the rebel shot dead at - 22 29 Jul 2012
However, the author also revealed how, on a visit to a youth centre, Mrs Assad had caused children to cry by falsely telling them the place was closing. Mrs Assad told her it was "just to get them out of their comfort zone."
The writer also described how, during a family fondue at the Assad residence, she asked Bashar al-Assad why he had wanted to be an eye doctor and he replied: "It's very precise, and there is very little blood."
The profile was remove from Vogue's website in the Spring and editor-in-chief Anna Wintour issued a statement deploring the actions of the Assad regime.
Chân thành cám ơn Quý Anh Chị ghé thăm "conbenho Nguyễn Hoài Trang Blog".
Xin được lắng nghe ý kiến chia sẻ của Quý Anh Chị trực tiếp tại Diễn Đàn Paltalk: 1Latdo Tapdoan Vietgian CSVN Phanquoc Bannuoc .
Kính chúc Sức Khỏe Quý Anh Chị .
conbenho
Tiểu Muội quantu
Nguyễn Hoài Trang
31072012
___________
Cộng sản Việt Nam là TỘI ÁC
Bao che, dung dưỡng TỘI ÁC là đồng lõa với TỘI ÁC
Syrian chargé d’affaires in London resigns - Monday 30 July
• 'No longer wishes to represent oppressive regime'
• Two sides dispute control of Salaheddin, Aleppo
• FSA claims control of Anadan checkpoint, north of Aleppo
• Latakia deputy police chief defects with others to Turkey
Haroon Siddique
guardian.co.uk, Monday 30 July 2012 08.45 BST
Jump to comments (215)
Jordanian workers take a United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) official (C) on a walk around tents at the Zaatri refugee camp for Syrian refugees, after the official opening of the first Syrian refugee camp in the city of Mafraq on the Jordanian-Syrian border, July 29, 2012. Reuters/Muhammad Hamed
16:22 BST
Summary
• The Syrian chargé d’affaires in London has resigned saying he is no longer willing to represent a "violent and oppressive" regime. Khaled al-Ayoubi was the most senior Syrian diplomat serving in London. His departure was announced by the UK Foreign Office, which described it as "another blow to the Assad regime". It urged others to follow his example.
• Rebel fighters claim to have captured the Hryatan military base and Anadan checkpoint, north-west of Aleppo. Video showed them celebrating on captured tanks and removing supplies. Colonel Abdel Naser, the commander in charge of the battle told the Guardian's Luke Harding that his troops seized eight tanks and 10 armoured vehicles, as well as mortars and lots of weapons. He said one rebel fighter was killed. The rebels now control a strategic land corridor in northern Syria from Turkey all the way to Aleppo's outskirts.
• Opposition activists have denied government claims that troops loyal to Bashar al-Assad have "purged" the neighbourhood of Salaheddin, in Aleppo. Salaheddin has been a rebel stronghold since the battle began 10 days ago and the scene of intense clashes in recent days. One activist told the Guardian that there had been heavy bombardment of the area overnight but Free Syrian Army troops remained, in defensive positions. Abu Obeida also said that 90% of residents had fled the area because of the fighting.
• A Syrian brigadier general who was deputy chief of police in Syria's Latakia region, has defected to Turkey. The official says the general was among a group of 12 Syrian officers who crossed into Turkey late Sunday. The brigadier general's defection raises the number of generals to have defected and crossed into Turkey since the start of the 17-month-old uprising to 28, according to AP. Latakia is the de facto capital of the Alawite heartland on the Mediterranean coast,
• The US defence secretary, Leon Panetta, criticised the Syrian army's use of heavy weapons in putting down the rebellion, describing it as "a nail in Assad's coffin". Beginning a tour of the Middle East, he said:
If they continue this kind of tragic attack on their own people ... I think it ultimately will be a nail in Assad's coffin.
Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jul/30/syria-aleppo-fight-continues-live?newsfeed=trueChân thành cám ơn Quý Anh Chị ghé thăm "conbenho Nguyễn Hoài Trang Blog".
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30 July 2012 Last updated at 05:50 GMT
Syria: Aleppo is nail in Assad's coffin, says Panetta
BBC
The Free Syrian Army and other rebel fighters have been engaged in fierce fighting in Aleppo
US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta says Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's assault on the city of Aleppo will be "a nail in his coffin".
Mr Panetta was speaking at the start of a five-day Middle East tour.
Heavy fighting is continuing in Syria's largest city where government forces are trying to oust rebel fighters.
UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos said 200,000 people had fled the fighting in Aleppo and that an unknown number were trapped.
She said that the city urgently needed supplies including food and water.
Mr Panetta said the Syrian crisis was deepening and that President Assad was hastening his own demise.
"If they continue this kind of tragic attack on their own people... I think it ultimately will be a nail in Assad's coffin," he told reporters.
"What Assad has been doing to his own people and what he continues to do to his own people makes clear that his regime is coming to an end. It's lost all legitimacy."
He added: "It's no longer a question of whether he's coming to an end, it's when."
Mr Panetta's tour will include talks in Tunisia, Egypt, Israel and Jordan.
He said he aimed to reinforce an international consensus that Mr Assad must step down and allow a peaceful transition to democracy.
The defence secretary said he would also continue efforts to ensure that Syria's stockpiles of chemical weapons did not fall into the wrong hands.
Baroness Amos, speaking in New York, said that the Red Cross and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent estimated that 200,000 people have fled Aleppo and surrounding areas in the past two days.
"It is not known how many people remain trapped in places where fighting continues today," she said.
"I call on all parties to the fighting to ensure that they do not target civilians and that they allow humanitarian organisations safe access."
UK-based activist group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights described the situation in Aleppo as "a full-scale street war".
The BBC's Ian Pannell, who was in Aleppo on Saturday, said government troops were trying to push into rebel-held neighbourhoods and there was fierce fighting.
Civilians are facing power cuts and food shortages, he says.
Late on Sunday, Syrian troops said they had recaptured the south-west district of Salah al-Din from the rebels.
"Complete control of Salah al-Din has been (won back) from those mercenary gunmen," a military officer told Syrian state TV.
"In a few days safety and security will return to the city of Aleppo."
Despite the army's statement, activists said fighting was continuing in Salah al-Din on Sunday night.
Aleppo activist Abo Aref al-Halabi told the BBC's Newsday programme on Monday that it had been a "terrible night" in the city.
"Nobody can sleep. Everywhere you can hear [the sound of] bombs," he said.
"The Assad armies are using mortars, they are using tanks, bombs, they are using helicopters, missiles coming from helicopters, to the Salah al-Din area."
He said some buildings were on fire and others had collapsed.
Battle-hardened
Our correspondent says that although the rebels are outgunned, they are fighting an effective guerrilla war in the streets of the city.
Many are more battle-hardened than their adversaries and they are making their own improvised explosive devices, he adds.
Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moualem, on a visit to Iran, said that the government was winning its war against the rebels.
"Today I tell you, Syria is stronger," he said.
"In less than a week they were defeated (in Damascus) and the battle failed. So they moved on to Aleppo and I assure you, their plots will fail."
***
At the scene
Ian Pannell
BBC News, Aleppo
A hole-in-the-wall bakery had just reopened its doors after being closed for more than a day. Most food shops in the turbulent districts are now closed.
Rebel fighters tried to marshal the crowds as hundreds of hungry and increasingly desperate residents clamoured for the thin round loaves.
Suriya had finally reached the front of the queue and the middle-aged mother thrust her hand through the railings outside the bakery, grasping for the bread. Like many poor Syrians she has a large family to feed and with no fresh fruit or vegetables available this is her only chance to get food.
"A lot of poor people are suffering from a lack of food and water," she complained. "Many are going to bed hungry."
Their suffering does not seem likely to end soon. Food, water and power shortages have made life hard for residents. The ever-present danger from bombs and bullets is making it intolerable.
Chân thành cám ơn Quý Anh Chị ghé thăm "conbenho Nguyễn Hoài Trang Blog".
Xin được lắng nghe ý kiến chia sẻ của Quý Anh Chị trực tiếp tại Diễn Đàn Paltalk: 1Latdo Tapdoan Vietgian CSVN Phanquoc Bannuoc .
Kính chúc Sức Khỏe Quý Anh Chị .
conbenho
Tiểu Muội quantu
Nguyễn Hoài Trang
31072012
___________
Cộng sản Việt Nam là TỘI ÁC
Bao che, dung dưỡng TỘI ÁC là đồng lõa với TỘI ÁC
